Many people go to law school because they want to do meaningful work that benefits society\, and it can be overwhelmi ng trying to find the perfect job to do that. Join OPIA for a community dis cussion with Wasserstein fellow Kenda McIntosh as she discusses her unconve ntional pathway into a career in indigent defense and how bringing her valu es into her work – from commercial real estate\, to immigration\, to public defense - has created opportunities and opened doors she could have never planned for. Kenda will discuss the rewards and challenges of serving margi nalized communities and offer practical advice on how to make the most out of the first few years of your legal career\, no matter what you end up doi ng.
Lunch provided. Please RSVP below. Open to the HLS community.
Kenda McIntosh has devoted over a decade to public interest work in vari ous roles. Prior to becoming a Federal Public Defender\, Kenda ran the cri minal defense practice at Still She Rises\, a non-profit organization in Tu lsa which was founded to address the staggering rates of female incarcerati on in Oklahoma. Embracing a client-centered and holistic approach\, her ph ilosophy of “no case too small” resulted in the dismissal of hundreds of ca ses\, ranging from municipal tickets to homicide charges. This approach not only significantly reduced the state’s interference in the lives of the wo men served by the organization\, but also translated into substantial econo mic benefit for the North Tulsa community\, amounting to millions of dollar s saved annually in bail\, traffic tickets\, court costs\, and fines.
Before joining Still She Rises\, Kenda served as an Assistant Public Defen der at the Oklahoma County Public Defender’s Office where she handled cases ranging from misdemeanors and juvenile delinquent matters to general felon y and capital cases. Prior to her time in Oklahoma\, Kenda worked as an imm igrant rights fellow at the International Institute of the Bay Area in Oakl and\, California where she assisted undocumented people with various immigr ation matters and was a pro-bono attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for C ivil Rights in San Francisco\, where she obtained asylum for three families facing death in their home countries. She received dual bachelor’s degrees in Russian language and political science from the University of Arizona\, and her J.D. from New England Law.
If you or an event participant re quires disability-related accommodations\, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@l aw.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.
CATEGORIES:Career Event,OPIA Events,Speaker/Panel LOCATION:WCC\; 2009 Classroom GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="Micah Nemiroff":MAILTO:mnemiroff@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/be-yourself-and-the-rest-will- follow-building-a-fulfilling-career-no-matter-where-life-takes-you/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20241103T060000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR